A good book

It seldom happens that you pick up a book just by looking at the name. It happened to me with "worshipping false gods". It happened to me again with "Godel, Escher and Bach : The Eternal Golden Baird".

I like to read books, blogs, magazines, almost anything interesting because it opens up the world of knowledge. One fine sunday, I read about fun theory on The Acorn - Nitin Pai's blog. It led me to the Overcoming Bias blog and then I was introduced by Overcoming Bias blog to Mr. Eliezer Yudowsky and others who are associated with Singularity Institute.

I went through the Singularity Institute site and also listened to comments by various scientists and professionals on Singularity reasearch. Being a gjnan ke liye bhatakti atma, I tried to create a discussion about Singularity, A.I. and modelling human intelligence using mathematics etc with my colleagues in office. As usual, response was bad. However, I decided to go through it, albeit alone. I came across people in different research activities in the site. Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Dr. Douglas Hofstadter are two people I found most interesting. I dug in deeper.

While I was amazed at Dr. Ray's futurism and thought process (recently, he announced his plans to build School of Futurism in collaboration with Google), I was very much attracted towards Dr. Douglas Hofstadter's thoughts. I read about him on Wikipedia and then was directed toward his book "Godel, Escher and Bach : The Eternal Golden Baird".

Well, I do confess that Dr. Douglas Hofstadter's interest in Mathematics pulled me toward this particular book. I read many reviews about the book. Some said "it is scary". Some said "it is about music". Some said "it is about mathematics". Some said "it is about art". Some said "it is about formal systems in general". For those who dont know what a formal system is read this. Mathematics always fascinated me. I always wanted to learn more about formal systems but could never do it formally. I thought this book would be a good point to start learning about formal systems.

I couldnt find the book in Bangalore. I could find it in Amazon though. I asked my uncle to buy it from Barnes and Nobles and finally got the book in February. I finished off My Country My Life last month and started reading this book last week.

This book, to say the least, is amazing!!! My initial feeling was that this book would demand a lot of time and concentration. But the first two chapters went off so fast that I was floating with excitement to read the rest of the book. The preface itself is a brilliant account of what the author wanted to convey through this book. I still remember my father telling me about "Prefaces" when I started doing "problems in Intermediate Calculus" which was published by some top class +1, +2 teachers in India to teach problem solving techniques in Calculus. He said "Always read preface before starting any book. It will help you expect the right things from the book. It will also establish a relationship between you and the author because preface mostly speaks about what is inside the book and why it is at the place where it is!!". Reading preface, of this book especially, made many-a-thing clear.

Dr. Douglas Hofstadter makes it clear right away in preface that "this book is not about mathematics, music, sketching and painting or any art. This book is about "I"s that we speak about." True to the spirit of his preface, he goes, in the very first chapeter, into the heart of the topic of the book. The book is so well written that you cant keep it off unless you have some physical limitation!! Dr. Hofstadter has filled the book with "Try it" exercises where he mentions an exercise and ends the paragraph with "Try it!". An inquisitive soul would never be able to move on to the next paragraph with out trying it and may be that is the reason for the success of the book. By the way, this book is into its twentieth reprint!!

I have started a journey with this book - literally as well as figuratively. I am quite sure I am going to enjoy reading this book. I am eager to write a review on this blog about this book, for, this book is going to be a brilliant discourse. I recommend this book to all of you.

Note: My micro-electronics, chip design, logic design conscience really woke up after I read the first few pages. It said "after all logic is built on formal systems. Infact, the career of any design engineer in digital, computer(hw or sw) floats in formal systems. The irony is he/she doesnt know what formal system is. Infact, in chip design process formal verification is a completely formal system. A good understanding of formal systems would make logic design an enjoyable process because the designer would really know the roots of the work he/she is doing.
Dont wonder too much about "he/she"s. In the preface of this book, Dr. Hofstadter speaks about how sorry he was for his sexist approach in putting many male characters he uses in the book to narrate some technical aspects. That struck my consience and I realised that I too keep doing it all the time and I would like to mention here that general use of He in previous articles was purely at sub-conscious level and I will try to avoid it as much as possible on this blog.

IPL...gone!!

If I were the home minister, I would let the IPL stay and would recommend the finance minister to announce tax cuts on IPL. It would

1. encaurage the common man to spend
2. show the world that our country can infact sustain on its own, be it rain or shine
3. also prove that India as nation has such great organizational skills that we can handle general elections as well as assembly elections of many states together with a mega sporting event

On the contrary, since IPL is being moved out (how can you call it Indian Premier League now??), it would mean

1. Another chance of actually applying a stimulus to the receeding economy is lost. After all stimulus is something the target should respond to!! Somehow, make people come out and spend some money so that bleeding business can get that money. State should be facilitator and a medium to drive the savings into the hands of business not a collection and re-distribution hub.
2. The international cricketer now might say "look, you guys might have the big money of cricket, but if you cant ensure that no-one sprays bullets on me on the way to the game, I would not consider playing in your country!!"
3. Pakistan errr sorry, I mean Terrorists are certainly going to be jubiliant about IPL though. Its a big psychological victory you see. Now they will say "See, we dont need to attack India anymore. Even if we attack some foreigners in Pakistan, India will take the back seat".

Instead of raising to the occassion, taking the challenge and getting the apparatus ready to give perfectly organized election as well as world class enternaiment, this government chose to use "somebody else's problem field" and adopted a posture of sitting duck!!! अगर हाथ का साथ लिया, तो हाथ थाम के रह जाओगे बस!!

Though I dont like the IPL or the twenty-20 format of the game, as an ardent Cricket fan I am very unhappy. It is a pity that we cant even enjoy our favourite game anymore. Thanks to Sonia Maino. Thanks to Manmohan Singh ji. Thanks to the UPA government!!

Interesting Post of the week - 2

This week's most interesting post comes from JK. The post is titled "Two Fiction Writers". It goes into two events in history. One happened in 1863 and involves an article written by Mark Twain. The other event is the Gujarat Godhra riots in 2002 and some articles written by Arundhati Suzzanne Roy in Outlook after the incident. JK tries to prove the point of how a writer can take events and package them into a hard hitting story. Adding gory details would make it look very very real. On the top of it, JK also goes on to prove how Mark Twain reacted to the incident in 1863 and how Arundhati Suzzane Roy reacted to the incident in 2002. JK quotes Nicole Elfi whose article on Jaia Bharati web-site talks about what happened when Arundhati Suzzane Roy's initial article was sued by Gujarat Government,

Then

The Gujarat Government sued Outlook magazine. In its May 27th issue, Outlookpublished an apology to save its face. But in the course of its apology, the magazine’s editors quoted a “clarification“ from Roy, who withdrew her lie by planting an even bigger one: the MP’s daughters “were not among the 10 women who were raped and killed in Chamanpura that day“! From Smita Narula to Arundhati Roy, “four or five girls“had swollen to “ten women,“ equally anonymous and elusive.[GODHRA: THE TRUE STORY]

Finally

The police investigations revealed that no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy’s help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation. Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power to issue summons.[6][GODHRA: THE TRUE STORY]

In 1863, Mark Twain's article on Hopkins family also recieved a similar critical response. JK tells us that Mark Twain responded like this

1863:

When he found that people were outraged over his fictional news reports, Mark Twain published a brief byline, “I take it all back.”

This post brought out how a popular figure would try to impress upon his/her readers that his/her analysis is the best bet. But it also tries to tell us how sec-soc populists in India try to go on covering lie after lie by adding things which never existed and which never happened, while they have the options of apologizing for the article and publishing the truth!!

Thanks to JK for a wonderful post. For one thing, it let me browse through another brilliant web site called Jaia Bharati for a good time of the week. This web-site is an attempt by complete foreigners and christians, I think, to protect the cultural heritage of Hinduism and India. Kudos to Nicole Elfi and others of the Jaia Bharati team.

Sound the bugle for freedom

Barbaindians come out with a brilliant piece, again!! I have always had the question in mind:

why does the media and the intellectuals
always keep writing and debating about RSS, BJP, Secularism Hindutva and eventually, not so surprisingly, always end up with some conclusion to make us believe "its all bad",
while
when it comes to Indira Gandhi, Emergency, Indo-China war, Panchsheel, Kashmir Plebiscite, Maruti Udhyog fiasco, bofors scandal, telecom mess before 1999, Rs5000 Crore scam in UPA regime,
there seems to be defeaning silence?

Even Bollywood film makers would like to go on giving lecture after lecture to us about Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai stories, MiG failure lullabies, success stories of secularism in india. But I think there has been not one honest attempt to portray the difficulties during Emergency, failure of Nehruvian thought process, blunder of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai slogan. Even though some priyadarshan makes some "Kancheepuram" to debate why communism failed in Kerala, media and intellectuals of the country dont want to talk about atleast the movie. It puzzles me that even books on emergency dont enter main stream discussion. Barbarindians gives us this reasoning

It is no wonder they fail to see why India took the other branch of the fork. Ultimately people decide their own fate. Democracy is a negotiated system of Governance. People must decide to what extent we can let the system be subverted. We have a pliable president. We had the cash for votes scam. We are going to have a relic from the dark days of emergency as our new CEC.

which I think makes perfect sense. Infact, the same question when I keep asking "secular" elders around me who were in their teens when emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi. They simply dont seem to have an answer. They simply havent read enough about this whole incident. It is certainly time that we ask the right questions. The Barbarindians go on to ask the right question.

Has the time come to sound the bugle for freedom? Sadly we can not fall back on our sold out intellectuals for guidance. It is clear that they haven't changed much since the emergency days.

The intelluctual class has failed us. The intellectual class has moved into "raking the mullah" domain and stuck itself to the "hail the dynasty" slogan since independence. The coming General Election is the right time to make people answer answer this question. Talk to your friends, colleagues and each and every person in your circle of acquaintances

Why havent we learnt much about emergency?
Why has the Panchsheel failed?
Why couldnt we find a solution to the Kashmir yet?
Why doesnt media do any debate on upto Rs5000 crores scams during last 5 years of UPA regime?
Why did media not bring out the truth in front of the nation about the
"Cash for vote"?

I guess these questions have been asked time and again by those who have felt it necessary. We only have a defeaning silence or "take diversion" signal from the media. This article by barbarindians ought to be read in full.

Interesting Post of the Week - 1

This week's interesting post I have read comes from Shantanu Bhagawat of satyamevajayate.org. I am regular at his blog. In this post, Shantanu tries to explain to us the value of Right to Information act or simply RTI and gives us links as to how to use it. In the ensuing cursiousity to learn more, this post led me toSakshi Trust. Sakshi Trust gives a detailed explanation and guidance on how to use RTI. Surely, next time I need information from government, I will look toward Sakshi Trust for guidance and help.

Please do go through this quite informative post from Shantanu and learn more about RTI. It is a very powerful tool.

Series - "Interesting Post of the Week"

Starting from Monday, I will post on every Monday, one interesting blog/post/web site/article of the week. All these posts shall be available under the label "interesting post of the week". Also, on the right side of the page, I will keep the latest "intersting post of the week" as a gadget. I will update the link to the post/blog/web site/article in this gadget on every Sunday.

Please feel free to suggest the posts, in the comments section, that you think are interesting so I can post it under the label "Interesting post of the week".

Fusion Reactor @ home?

Remember Nuclear Fusion Reaction? The definition of a Nuclear Reaction goes like:

Nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or absorption of energy

Now think about this. Can you build one such reactor at home? I never thought one could and yes, you got it, you can make one at home. Yes, right in your home!! Dont believe me? Then you have to visit here and read this:

Pictured at the top of these pages is a man named Philo T. Farnsworth. On the left is the difficult thing that he invented in the 1920s. You are probably familiar with it. It's called "television."
On the right is the "impossible" thing that he invented in the 1950s.. You are probably less familiar with it. In fact you are probably not familiar with it all, because the device was never perfected nor made practical. At least, not yet. Indeed, the impossible takes slightly longer. In this case, about 40 years longer...
The device is a nuclear fusion reactor.

Now some of these tech savvy fusor builders went on to improvise on the reactor Fransworth had built and are now actually building their own nuclear fusion reactors right in their basements and garages.

Still, the lure of fusion is unmistakable. Particularly when compared to fission, a fusion reactor would be "clean" - there are no radioactive by products that will take hundreds of thousands of years to decay, as there is with the nuclear waste from a fission plant. The only by product is helium - an inert gas. The reactors themselves would be safe; there is no danger of a "meltdown" as there is with a fission reactor because there is only a tiny amount of nuclear fuel present in the reaction chamber at any given time.

So fusion would be safe, and there is no radioactive waste as there is with fission. But the most compelling promise of fusion is in the fuel itself: fusion is produced from an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium, which exists in the Earth's oceans in sufficient abundance to supply the planet's energy needs for hundreds of millions of years - until long after the Sun itself has flamed out.

Nevertheless, in the past few years there has been a resurgence of interest in the Farnsworth approach to fusion. There is now a small cadre of "fusioneers" building "Fusors" in their basements and garages. These are low-power devices, based on a variation of the Farnsworth approach that was developed by Farnsworth's colleagues Gene Meeks and Robert L. Hirsch, that are relatively simple to build and employ all the multidisciplinary techniques that fusion requires: vacuum pumping, stainless steel machining, power supply management, etc. Believe it or not, some of these devices, which really do produce fusion reactions, have been built for "less than the cost of a set of used golf-clubs."

Fusion may sound like an exotic, "impossible" feat. But the fact is people like you are achieving the "impossible" on an almost daily basis. It is only a matter of time before somebody stumbles on the breakthrough that we are all hoping for.

The site has an FAQ station where for a general visitor, the questions are not so frequently asked ones!!! Strange - how things generally start and how they go on to the "aaah-thats-bloody-brilliant" reaction. Tomorow one of these guys might come up with a model of in-house fusion reactor for generating electricity in a residence. Remember? Best of the companies were started in garages and basements, best of the bands jammed in their formative years in garages and basements, best of the ideas popped out of the garages and basements. Garages and Basements seem to be the most important places of creativity in today's world. Tomorrow we might be reading about in-house nuclear reactor which was first designed in a garage!! Fiction? You never know!!

Just go around the site. They actual watch neutrons getting built inside the fusor via television. Richard Hull organizes regular fusioneers meet and they also have pictures showing how minature artificial stars look like, curiosly called Star in a Jar.

Lets steal some "time"

This article is written for www.vlsichipdesign.com/.

Even before entering a formal layout making phase, some important decisions are taken in chip designing. One such activity is time budgeting. Recently I came across a good technique, which I hitherto thought tough, generally avoided and not recommended, to negotiate timing problems in general. The process of learning tore apart all the myths I had about this technique.

The following explanation is only to introduce the reader to fundamentals of timing analysis on digital circuits. If the reader is familiar with these concepts, he can choose to skip this explanation. Note: Not to annoy physical measurement buffs, all units are assumed and thus wont be mentioned explicitly.

If a particular logic is to be put in between two registers, then for proper generation and storage of logic outputs, the following conditions have to be met. I will use figure below as a reference to explain, in brief, about timing constraints in digital circuits. You can find the original figure here.

FF1, FF2 are registers. D1 and D2 are sets of data that are to be registered by FF1 and FF2 respectively. Logic cloud in between the two flip-flops generates D2 depending upon Q1. "clk" is the clock driving the two flip-flops. Lets assume that

• both FF1 and FF2 are characterised by clock-q delay of tc, setup time of ts, hold time of th and are positive edge triggered
• propogation delay of the logic cloud between the two flip-flops be tp
• clock frequency is f Hz i.e, clock period if tclk = 1/f

Now, it is a well known fact that for a flip-flop to properly register data, the following conditions have to be met

• data at input should be held constant for some time, called setup time, before the clock edge
• data at input should be held constant for some time, called hold time, before the clock edge occurs

Thus, the timing diagram for the current scenario, assuming that d1 doesnt violate setup time or hold time on FF1, is as shown in the figure below. You can find the original figure here (Right click and save as).

tclk = tc + tp + x + ts...............(1)
Thus to avoid any timing violation in the worst case, x -> 0. Thus,

tclk >= tc + tp + ts => f <= 1/tclk to ensure no timing violations on FF2.

This is the fundamental condition that arises from how digital circuits work. Now lets move on to the topic of time budgeting and time stealing.

Time Budgeting and time stealing

Time budgeting in chip design is a very interesting activity. In this stage, the designer plays with this basic condition described above to reap the engineering advantage. Even the latest and best software tools cant give or beat the advantage that can be brought about by carefully crafting the design to adjust timing on chip. At the outset this statement might look like an overstatement but I would like to confess that I am truly amazed at this technique.

Lets take a look at this technique.

Consider a circuit like the one shown below. You can find the original figure here (Right click and save as).

Lets assume that

• FF1, FF2, FF3 and FF4 are characterised by clock-q delay of tc, set up time of ts, hold time of th and are positive edge triggered
• propogation delay of the logic cloud between the flip-flops FF1 and FF2 to be tp1,
• propogation delay of the logic cloud between flip-flops FF2 and FF3 to be tp2 with tp2 > tp1
• propogation delay of the logic cloud between flip-flops FF3 and FF4 to be tp3 with tp3 < tp2
• clock frequency is f Hz i.e, clock period if tclk = 1/f
• RAM shown in the figure has an access time of ta
• tclk < tc + tp1 + ts and tclk < tc + ta + tp2 + ts and tclk > tc + tp3 + ts
• Timing violation on FF1-FF2 path is by t1
• Timing violation on FF2-FF3 path is by t2
• Timing is being met on FF3-FF4 path by t3 slack i.e., x = t3 from equation (1)

Since paths FF1-FF2 and FF2-FF3 are already loaded logic cant be moved from one one path ot another path. Also, since FF2-FF3 has a RAM and a logic cloud that acts on the data from RAM, this logic also cant be moved to the FF3-FF4 path. We can however move logic cloud in FF2-FF3 path to FF3-FF4 path. But for the moment lets assume we cant do that.

So how does one attack this problem? We steal time.

The problem here: tclk, the time for which flip-flops FF2 and FF3 see an edge, is just not enough to fit in the whole logic in. The solution is to extend this time. But then extending this time at the chip level, is not an option because if the clock frequency is reduced at the chip-level, it may violate the specification and thus reduce the throughput of the chip itself. The problem has to be solved locally in between the four flip-flops, which is exactly the technique. This technique is used in the time-budgeting phase, where these problems are foreseen. Confused? Let me explain.

In the path FF1-FF2,

tclk < tc + tp1 + ts by t1. If we can make FF2 see clock frequency of tclk + t1, then this timing violation on FF2 can be avoided.

In the path FF2-FF3,

tclk < tc + tp2 + ts by t2. If we can make FF3 see clock frequency of tclk + t1 + t2, then this timing violation on FF3 can be avoided.

We also know that tp3 < tp2 < tp1, which means added t1, t1+t2 to tclk to FF2 and FF3 respectively can be adjusted on t3. Thus tclk need not be adjusted on FF4. The timing adjusted circuit might as shown in figure below. You can find the original figure here (Right click and save as).

The clock buffers for FF2 and FF3 account the negative slacks t1 and t2 respectively due to the corresponding immovable logic clouds feeding the two flip-flops respectively. Why and how does this circuit work and resolve the timing violations? Following figure explains. You can find the original figure here (Right click and save as).

In the figure above, the timing diagram of the modified circuit is shown. First of all, the whole cicuit works in the same amount of time as the unmodified circuit - 4 clock cycles. The second thing to note is we only added two buffers whose delay is known. I will deal with how to implement these buffers shortly. It is to be noted that all the modifications hold good only when t1 + t2 + t3 < tclk. The third and most important thing to note: the modifictions in between these four flip-flops dont effect any other circuit connected to this circuit in any way. Thus the design of the circuit, whose driver is net q4, can take place without any changes even though there are modifications in this circuit.

Now lets talk about the how part of the whole deal. The how part is about implementing the clock buffers that can produce that delay. The implementation cant happen at RTL phase. Reason being that RTL files dont have any timing information i.e., all are ideal primitive cells. These buffers have to be added during synthesis/layout phase. The netlist is generally modified to introduce "buffers" already present in the technology library in use. Technology libraries generally come with varied variety of clock buffers. Proper buffers with required fanout and drive capacities are chosen and introduced in multiples, if required. Note that these buffers generally are small in size too.

Thus the whole process needs a great level of co-ordination and communication between design engineer and layout engineer. Generally, the time budgeting decisions are taken very early in the design phase. Best Practice: The layout engineer is made aware of these decisions well in advance and any suggestions are taken by the designer so that the modifications happen smoothly.

One other repurcussion of the modification is with respect to verification. I always felt that chip process is like a thriller. You get shrills and thrills all the time. A heavily conservative approach will not help as it will eat up time. An take-care-later approach too will not help because changes early in the design process are easy and cheap but changes and modifications at any later stage increase the cost exponentially and are very tough to handle also. This is the reason why the verification engineer is like a whistle blower almost althrough the process. With respect to the example at hand, it is a general practice to introduce the buffers into netlist and do GLS (Gate Level Simulations). During the Gate Level Simulations, the netlist (after modifications) is put to tough testing by the verification environment for any timing violations and any repurcussions of the modifications that went unnoticed.

No advantage comes free. There is a cost to be paid. It might seem that buffers are the cost being paid in this example. But as mentioned before these buffers dont occupy as much area. However, the cost paid by adding buffers manifests itself in a different form - in the form of jitter. Jitter is a serious problem in any chip. Jitter can be defined as "spurious change in the clock edge due to on chip variations". Generally it is recommended that clock tree (clock tree distributes clock to all the flip flops on chip) is not be tampered with. However, when need arises to solve timing problems as has been done in this example, this cost has to be paid. The increase in clock jitter due to introduction of clock buffers can result in some issues and this is where again GLS plays a crucial role. The verification engineer's job is to make sure he doesnt miss the effect of jitter in his verification environment.

To conclude, I would say time budgeting is one such phase where the problems like above are solved by the engineer by arriving at a good trade off - like what the spirit of engineering development states. This is a very important phase in chip design process and demands utmost care, co-ordination and communication among the engineers involved from design to layout.

Note: The OCV (On Chip Variations) are not taken into account in this whole discussion. However they too play a very important role in time budgeting and have to considered seriously in this process. The reason being increase in jitter as mentioned in the discussion. It has also been assumed that hold time violations are not there. However even if hold time violations are there, they can be easily removed by placing some extra buffers on the data bus to each flop. It is a general practice to take care of hold time violations, if there are any, in this way. Thanks to Shantan for the tip.

Time to Vote

The election commision declared the 5 phase polling schedule for the election of fifteenth lok sabha. The details are as follows:

Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh will have polls on all five dates.
Bihar: April 16, 23, 30 and May 7.
Maharashtra: April 16, 23 and 30.
West Bengal: April 30, May 7 and 13.
Andhra Pradesh: April 16 and 23.
Assam: April 16 and 23.
Karnataka: April 23 and 30.
Madhya Pradesh : April 23 and 30.
Manipur: April 16 and 23.
Orissa: April 16 and 23.
Punjab: May 7 and 13.
Jharkhand: April 16 and 23.
Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep will have a single-phase poll on April 16.
Goa and Tripura will have one-day poll on April 23.
Gujarat, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu will have one-day poll on April 30.
Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan will have a one-day poll on May 7.
Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Puducherry will have polling on May 13.

The day started with a bad but not surprising news. However by the afternoon, the news about the fifteenth lok sabha election schedule diverted the focus. Its time to choose a better government was my first reaction when I read the news.

The first election I watched closely was 1997 election which resulted in hung parliament and an NDA government which lasted for two years. I followed 1997 election on Star News, the then new satellite news channel. That election brought about a considerable change in the way elections were analysed. 1999 election was also covered quite extensively by electronic media, albeit by pushing its own agenda of false-secularism. In 2004, electronic media played its own critical part. This time around, I decided to follow the general elections on internet rather than on television. The reason being there seems to be no channel interested in impartial news coverage.

I thank Yossarin on Offstumped who is about to cover the elections in a six-pronged approach. I have decided to follow the election on this and various other platforms which seem to be interested in reporting, debating and analysing rather than dramatising news.

As I have stated before, I have decided to vote for BJP. The reason being that congress has failed on many fronts and they just seem to lack the spirit of upholding democracy be it in the case of installation of Pratibha Patil as President of India, Navin Chawla's removal from Election Commisioner's office, Office of profit, fighting scams in ministries, fighting terrorism, dealing with deals, controlling inflation, or using tax payer's money responsibly. The list is bigger but these are major ones. Congress has acted shameless, craving for power during the last five years!!! Semifinals showed large number of people turned up to vote. There is no reason why the voter turn out should not be better than that of previous general election. As many as 10 crore first time voters are expected to vote in this general election. As a side note, I am one of them.

I would like to request all of you to vote, and to vote for BJP. India cant afford another five years of mis-rule!!